Ventilating unit



Nov. 4, 1 947.

M. E. HAGLER VENTILATING UNIT- Filed Nov. 18, 1944 Patented Nov. 4, 1947 VENTILATING UNIT Marshal E. Hagler, Tuscaloosa, Ala., assignor to National Southern Products Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Ala., a corporation of Delaware Application November 18, 1944, Serial No. 564,154

6 Claims.

The present invention relates to ventilating fans or blowers adapted to transfer air, gases and vapors from and into enclosed spaces, such as the attic and other rooms of a dwelling house, and in fact any enclosure Where it is desirable to remove vapors, odors, impure air, etc; or to introduce fresh air. Fans provide for this purpose in the past have usually been made with blades of the propeller blade type and have required the provision of a large hole in the ceiling or wall of the room at the point of installation for efficient action in eduction of air. They have also required a bulky penthouse r casing to enclose the motor and fan.

The object of this invention is to provide a ventilating fan and combined supporting means and other accessories, which avoid the defects and objectionable features of the apparatus previously used for the purpose, and which will be equally efiicient or more efficient and be effective to disperse the air radially at the discharge side. One important phase of the foregoing object is to make the installation more compact and improve its appearance.

In the drawings accompanying this specification,

Fig, 1 is an axial sectional view of a Ventilating unit embodying this invention and adapted to be mounted on the ceiling or wall of a room in register with an opening in such ceiling or wall;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the central part of the unit showing a spring for advancing the bafile holder when the unit is employed with its axis horizontal.

The fan consists of a disk or spider I having a continuous rim with which a multiplicity of blades 2 are connected. Such blades may be integral with the disk or spider, or otherwise secured in any suitable way, as by welding, brazing, mechanical connections, etc. The length dimension of the blades extends parallel, or substantially so, to the axis of the disk, and their width dimension, which is preferably shorter than the length dimension although not essentially so, is more or less nearly radial to that axis. That is, the blades may be exactly radial or may be inclined more or less to the radii on which they are respectively located. A wide leeway is possible as to the degree of this angle.

The fan constituted by the combination of disk or spider and blades is secured by screws 3 coaxially to the rotor 4 of an electric motor, the

stationary part 5 of which is secured to a housing 6, which is preferably dome-shaped. The housing in turn is coupled with a clamp or holder I, which carries legs or brackets 8. The latter extend radially from the holder I to points beyond the circumference of the fan and are there bent into approximate parallelism with the fan axis, and they have foot pieces 9 on their extremities, so disposed that when the foot pieces are made fast to a supporting surface the fan is held clear and free to rotate. There are three or more legs suitably spaced around the axis to furnish a stable support for the fan and motor combination. In order to damp vibrations and insure quiet running, a buiTer or bushing ID of rubber or other suitable vibration quenching material is interposed between the housing i; and clamp l.

The clamp 1 may be a ring or band encircling the motor housing and provided with lugs l2 adapted to be drawn together by a bolt 12 and nut so as to tighten the clamp around the housing and bushing; or it may be otherwise secured.

The fan combination is mounted on the up per side of a ceiling or on one side or the other of a wall, or on a partition between rooms, in register with a hole therein, by securing the foot pieces 9 to such ceiling or wall. Such a ceiling, wall or partition is indicated in a diagrammatic way at l3, in Fig. 1. A molding or frame E lis applied within the rim of the hole to give a finished appearance, such molding having a flange Ma extending over the margin of the hole and being secured by screws [5 passing through a ring 26 which lies against the outer surface of the ceiling or wall and provides a firm support and anchorage for the screws and a reinforcement for the margin of the hole. Either or both the molding and ring may be made of metal, wood, or any other material which is suitably strong and rigid for the purpose. The foot ends of the legs 8, or their foot pieces 9, may be connected directly to the ring, if desired, rather than to the ceiling or wall separately, and when so connected, the ring serves as a footing for the legs as well as a clamp and fastener support for the molding.

A baflle l1, preferably of conical form, is mounted in the space surrounded by the fan blades with its base adjacent to the disk or spider I and its apex directed toward, into, or through the aperture in the ceiling or wall. Its base somewhat nearly approximates in diameter and area the diameter and area of the aperture. It serves when the fan is in action to direct the air passing through the outlet aperture in smooth flow lines to the fan blades. At other times it is lowered or advanced until its base is substantially in the plane of the aperture so as substantially to close the latter to conceal the fan. The base may be made large enough to overlap the rim of the aperture or fit closely within it, so as to close the aperture completely when advanced. The bafile is secured to the lower end of a tubular shaft or sleeve I8 which has a telescopic sliding engagement on the outside of a tube [9 and inside of a tube 20; the tubes l9 and 20 being coaxial with shaft [8 and both being secured at their upper end to the motor housing 6; the tube 20 being threaded into the housing or held by a force fit, and tube 19 being enlarged at its end and secured by a force fit, or any other suitable means in tube 2!]. The tubular shaft l8 has a longitudinal slot '2! through which a stop pin 22 extends; the p-in being set in the tubes [9 and 20 and serving to limit the downward or inward movement of the conical baiile and its supporting sleeve.

The outermost tube 20 supports the stationary part of a bearing 23 (here shown as a ball bearing), by which the rotating part of the driving motor, and thereby the fan, is supported. The innermost tube I9 is adapted to support an electric light fixture, being internally threaded at its lower end for attachment of such a fixture, and its open interior provides a duct or channel through which circuit conductors for the light fixture may pass. In this drawing, which shows a typical unit on a reduced scale, the ratio of thickness of the several tubes to their diameters is exaggerated for clarity. It will be readily understood that the principles of the construction permit making the innermost tube with a bore large enough for the purposes above mentioned. When no such fixture is attached to the tube, the opening in the apex of the bafile, which is alined with the bore of tube I9 to admit the fixture, is closed by a removable plug 24.

When the unit is mounted with its axis vertical and the fan is stationary, the baflle is held by gravity in its lowered position, approximately that shown by broken lines in Fig. 1; or with its circumference resting on the molding M, if made large enough for that purpose. When the motor is started, the partial vacuum created by the fan above the baffle causes the latter to rise, and thereafter the flow of air, together with whatever vacuum effect may be present, holds it in the raised position. With stoppage of the fan and cessation of the air flow, the bafile descends by its own weight.

To perform the same function when the unit is installed in horizontal position (i. e., with its axis horizontal), I may provide a spring 25 in the annular space between the tubes 19 and 20 disposed to press on the end of tube 18 and react on the shoulder 26 provided by the enlarged end of tube l9, substantially as shown by Fig. 3, the spring being long enough and strong enough to advance the baffle into the closing position when the fan stops, and being flexible enough to permit displacement of the baffle by the air flow and pressure when the fan is running.

Ventilating units embodying this invention are adapted to ventilate both by exhausting air from a room or space and by blowing air into a room or space. For instance, if one is located in the ceiling of a room over which there is an attic space, it draws out the air from the upper levels of the room and disperses it in the attic. Such units may be mounted to expel air through the roof or an outer wall of a building to the outer atmosphere, or to deliver fresh outer air into a room. In the delivery of air to a room, the axial disposition of the fan blades is an important feature, as it causes radial dispersion of the air and cooling (or Warming, depending on the relative temperature of the delivered air) of the surrounding air without creating a draft.

The invention here described may be embodied in units of various dimensions. For instance, the diameter of the fan rotor may be of any value from about 8 inches to 40 or even 60 inches, according to the service which it is to perform; and the dimensions of the aperture and other parts of the unit, and the size, speed and power of the motor, varied in proportion. By way of further example, I may say that for such various sizes of fan, motors ranging from about A; H. P. runnin at 1700 R. P. M. for the smallest fans to around 3 H. P. running at 300 R, P. M. for much larger fans may be employed. These specific figures are purely illustrative and in no sense limiting as to the scope of the invention.

Air exhausting and ventilating units of all dimensions and capacities embodying this invention have the practical advantages of being compact and efficient, requiring no bulky housings, the necessary apertures for permitting flow of the volume of air they can move are of minimum diameter, and they possess means for concealing them when not in use and ornamenting that part of a ceiling or wall in which the outlet aperture is made. However, the baille, although a desirable combined feature, is not an essential one, and other advantageous features may be availed of without its use.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A ventilating unit comprising a rotor having a peripheral series of spaced apart blades arranged to surround an open interior space, a motor connected with said rotor for driving it, means for mounting said unit at the outer side of a. ceiling or wall in register with an opening through the ceiling or wall, and a baille connected with the unit in the space surrounded by said blades substantially equal in transverse dimensions at its widest part to the width dimensions of said opening and having provisions enablin it to be retracted into said space and to be projected toward the plane of the ceiling or wall.

2. A ventilating unit comprising an electric motor, a fan secured to the rotary part of said motor having a plurality of blades in circular series around the axis of rotation, said blades having one dimension of substantial length extending in the direction of such axis away from the motor, and a conical bailie adapted to occupy the space surrounded by the blades with its base adjacent to the plane in which one end of the blades are located and its apex near the plane of the opposite ends of the blades, said baffle being of substantially like area and outline at its base to the transverse area of said space and being movable from end to end of said space.

3. A ventilating unit comprising an electric motor, a fan connected with said electric motor to be rotated thereby and having a plurality of blades arranged in annular series around its axis of rotation, said blades having one dimension of substantial length extending in the direction of such axis, and a baffle coupled with the motor and fan combination in the space surrounded by said blades with provision for displacement in the axial direction, said bafile having a streamlined conical formation at one side coaxial with the fan.

4. A ventilating unit comprising the combination of a motor, a housing within which the stationary part of the motor is secured, a tube secured to said housing coaxial with said stationary part and On which the rotating part of the motor has its bearing, a fan secured to said rotating part to be driven thereby, said fan including a disk secured to said rotating part and blades protruding in the axial direction from the peripheral part ofthe disk, the width dimensions of said blades being in generally radial relation to the axis of the disk and being substantially shorter than the radius of the disk, a shaft having a telescopic sliding engagement in the interior of said tube and a conical baflle secured at its apex to said shaft, the base of the baffle cone being substantially coextensive with the transverse dimensions of the space surrounded by said blades and located near the disk portion of the fan when the shaft is retracted into said tube and being movable with outward travel of the shaft away from said disk.

5. The combination with a Wall or ceiling having an opening, of a ventilating unit mounted on such wall or ceiling across the opening, comprising a fan having an annular series of blades surrounding and rotatable around a central space, a motor connected with the fan for driving it, means for supporting said motor and fan assemblage with said central space in registering alinement with said opening, and a baflle supported by the motor and fan assemblage in centralized relation to said space with provisions for advancement into closing relation to said wall opening and retraction away from said opening into said space.

6. The combination with a wall or ceiling having a through opening, of brackets secured to such wall at points spaced around the perimeter of the opening, a clamp or holder supported by said brackets in central position with respect to them and displaced from the plane of the wall, a motor housing embraced by said clamp, a tube supported by the central part of said housing and projecting therefrom toward the wall opening in axial alinement with the opening, an electric motor having a stationary part secured in the housin and a rotor surrounding and rotatably supported by the tube, a fan consisting of a disk or spider secured to said rotor and an annular series of blades carried by the rim of said spider extending toward the rim of the wall opening, a shaft in said tube movable endwise therein to protrude more or less therefrom, c0- operating stop means on the tube and shaft arranged to limit protrusion of the shaft, and a conical baffle secured to said shaft with its base facing toward the spider, the said stop means being disposed to arrest the baille when the base thereof is in position to stop the wall opening and to permit retraction of the baffle into the space which is surrounded by the fan blades.

MARSHAL E. HAGLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,637,474 Dake Aug. 2, 1927 1,767,988 Knapp June 24, 1930 2,126,230 Troxell, Jr. Aug. 9, 1938 2,153,576 Kurth et a1. Apr. 11, 1939 

